Six In The Morning Saturday 18 May 2019

Finland is winning the war on fake news. What it’s learned may be crucial to Western democracy

On a recent afternoon in Helsinki, a group of students gathered to hear a lecture on a subject that is far from a staple in most community college curriculums.

Standing in front of the classroom at Espoo Adult Education Centre, Jussi Toivanen worked his way through his PowerPoint presentation. A slide titled “Have you been hit by the Russian troll army?” included a checklist of methods used to deceive readers on social media: image and video manipulations, half-truths, intimidation and false profiles.

Another slide, featuring a diagram of a Twitter profile page, explained how to identify bots: look for stock photos, assess the volume of posts per day, check for inconsistent translations and a lack of personal information.

An American pastor from New Jersey backed by a British former clairvoyant is running a network that gives up to 50,000 Ugandans a “miracle cure” made from industrial bleach, claiming drinking the toxic fluid eradicates cancer, HIV/Aids, malaria and most other diseases.

The network, led by pastor Robert Baldwin and part-funded by Sam Little from Arlesey in Bedfordshire, is one of the most extensive efforts yet to distribute the “miracle cure” known as MMS, or “miracle mineral solution”. The Guardian has learned that poor Ugandans, including infants as young as 14 months old, are being given chlorine dioxide, a product that has no known health benefit and can be extremely dangerous.

Baldwin, 52, is importing bulk shipments of the components of MMS, sodium chlorite and citric acid, into Uganda from China. The two chemicals are mixed to produce chlorine dioxide, a powerful bleach used in the textile industry.

‘The point is to overturn Roe v Wade’: How a quiet Republican effort to limit abortion rights has blown up into a full scale attack on women’s rights

‘The primary purpose is to save human life. But we’re not going to shy away from it going to the Supreme Court with the intention of overturning Roe v Wade’

The bill, known as a “heartbeat” abortion bill, received little national press. But, when it was signed into law in April, it made good on a near seven-year effort to restrict abortions in the state to six weeks, before many women even know their pregnant.

“The point for me, for this heartbeat bill, and all the pro-life legislation, is to save the unborn,” Ms Roegner told The Independent this week of the bill, which has been introduced in every legislative session in the state since at least 2011. “It’s to save innocent life.”

Syrian air defenses have shot down drones and projectiles fired towards the capital and the Hmeimim airbase, Syrian TV reports. Israel has previously targeted Iranian and Hezbollah sites in the war-ravaged country.

Syria’s Hmeimim airbase — which is operated by Russia — responded to projectiles and drones fired by militant groups inside Israeli-controlled territory, Syrian state television said on Saturday.

One person was killed and several others were wounded in the attacks close to the southeastern coastal city of Latakia, it added.

The state-run news agency SANA said the base’s aerial defenses “targeted luminous objects coming from the occupied territories (Israel), shooting down a number of them.”

Sri Lanka marks war anniversary with thousands still missing

Still reeling from the Easter terror attacks, Sri Lanka commemorates this weekend 10 years since the end of a bloody civil war that killed at least 100,000 people, from which the scars are still not healed.

Security was tight in the north of the island, home to Sri Lanka’s minority Tamils, ahead of solemn ceremonies on Saturday.

Sri Lanka’s government and top military brass were due to hold their own commemoration in Colombo on Sunday.

On May 18, 2009 government forces brought their no-holds-barred military offensive to an end at a lagoon in the northern coastal district of Mullaittivu with the killing of Velupillai Prabhakaran, leader of the rebel Tamil Tigers.

Australian election enters final hours

By Anna Jones, Jay Savage and Frances Mao

Indigenous woman hoping to make history in NT

Henry Jacobs

BBC News, Sydney

Polls have also closed in the Northern Territory, a sparsely populated federal territory that is home to Uluru/Ayers Rock and thousands of square miles of desert.

The key seat of Lingiari covers 99.99% of the region, with the exception of Darwin city, and also includes the Commonwealth Territories of Christmas and Cocos (Keeling) Islands.

Labor MP Warren Snowdon has held the seat since its inception in 2001 and is being challenged by the Country Liberal Party’s Jacinta Price – the first Indigenous woman to contest the seat for a major party.